iPhone App of the Week: PlayLater â€œRecordsâ€ Movies and Shows From Hulu and Netflix

In terms of legality, PlayLater is smack dab in the middle of a large gray area. That shouldn’t necessarily stop you from using it, though – it’s a somewhat honest way to access content on Hulu and Netflix when you’re offline.

When you use PlayLater, you’ll still need subscriptions to all of those content providers. If you do have them, you’ll be able to search for content, then hit the “record now” button. Using the word “record” is part of PlayLater’s marketing scheme, trying to brand the app as a DVR for Netflix and Hulu content. Really, it’s just downloading the movie to your computer so you can watch it offline later. That’s the gray area part, but at the end of the day (or month), you still have to pony up for those subscription fees either way.

Unfortunately, PlayLater isn’t free, either. It’ll cost $25 per year, or $50 for a lifetime subscription. Apps like these – which are essentially workarounds to copyright inconveniences – can be flighty, so I’d be wary of giving them a lot of money up front for a service that might not be around in a year. You can take PlayLater up on their current offer of $10 for six months, and there is a two week free trial period you can take advantage of.

PlayLater is an app you use on your PC, but if you use PlayOn, you can push that content to your iPhone or iPad and watch it from there while you’re offline, as well.

Update: It turns out that PlayLater actually records video in real time and it is not downloading. Also – you do not need a subscription to Hulu to record Hulu videos.